PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – Time now for this week’s HR Sports Star and for that we head to the Peninsula where Hampton University made history this past weekend and stole the national sports spotlight from ESPN in the game of Lacrosse.

The Pirates Lacrosse team was just a club team 3 years ago. It was announced last spring they were going to compete in the top division in college lacrosse playing a 5 game Division 1 independent schedule.

And on a cold and frigid day this past weekend, the Pirates as pioneers made history. They became the first ever historically black college or university to field a Division 1 lacrosse team.

The team was the dream of a former Hampton student, Michael Crawford, who died in December 2010 of an undiagnosed enlarged heart, one semester short of graduation. He wanted to start a club team at Hampton. His mother, Verina, saw to it that it happened.

Congratulations to the Hampton University Men’s Lacrosse Team for being the first historically black college or university to field a division 1 lacrosse team! Go Pirates!